Education

Ph.D., Experimental Psychology; University of Pennsylvania

Research Summary

I am interested in human oral perception and its genetic basis. The primary focus of my work is on taste perception with an emphasis on taste discrimination, taste enhancement and suppression, and taste localization. I also study oral irritation/chemesthesis, mouthfeel, and astringency. The interactions among gustation, chemesthesis, and olfaction that comprise flavor are the topic of an ongoing research program that includes fMRI as a tool to understand regional brain involvement. In addition to human research, I conduct parallel genetic studies of the chemical senses in my Fly Lab, which uses Drosophila melanogaster as a model.